ON Saturday, Everton and Liverpool will contest the 200th Merseyside derby match.

ON Saturday, Everton and Liverpool will contest the 200th Merseyside derby match.

It is the most played domestic dust-up in England - it was also the first - and to celebrate the landmark tonight we kick-off a special Echo build-up to the big match.

Every night this week we will bring you some of the stories and highlights which have made the Mersey derby the most celebrated local rivalry in the country.

The sides first met on October 13, 1894 - three weeks before Manchester's big two met for the first time, four years before Sunder-land and Newcastle kicked off their North East rivalry and 20 years before Arsenal and Spurs first fired shots in anger.

Every league clash since then has been in top flight action (170 of them). There have also been 20 FA Cup ties - including two finals, four League Cup ties (in its Milk Cup and Little-woods Cup guises), three Charity Shield clashes and two Screen Sport Super Cup meetings.

No other domestic rivalry can come close to matching that achievement - and tonight we commence the countdown to the double century.

McInnes gets ball rolling for Blues >>>>

McInnes gets ball rolling for Blues>NUMBER ONE

THERE have been 508 goals scored in Merseyside derby matches.

The first - scored by Tom McInnes 110 years ago - was received just as riotously as every one since.

Huge interest surrounded the first meeting of the two teams at Goodison Park.

The great split from which Liverpool were born had taken place only two years earlier - and the Reds spent all week at Hightown undergoing special training in preparation for the match.

Everton made the brighter start. Only 10 minutes had elapsed when Stewart took a free-kick into the Liverpool semi-circle (penalty areas and six yard boxes were still many years off) and Tom McInnes headed the first derby goal.

The goalscorer was injured 10 minutes before half-time and in the days before substitutes Everton had to continue with 10-men.

He returned after the interval when, according to the ECHO "the crowd had assumed abnormal proportions, estimated at between 35,000 and 40,000."

The second goal came from Alex Latta, who shot in from a difficult angle, then after Everton had seen a third goal disallowed they did add another.

Most record books give Bell the credit for the goal, but according to the ECHO report "Everton attacked strongly, the ball being put into the net by one of the Liverpool backs, this making Everton's third goal."

As it would so many times in the years to follow, the first Mersey derby had ended on a controversial note.

Ref blunder robs Reds of landmark victory >>>>

Ref blunder robs Reds of landmark victory>HALF CENTURY

CONTROVERSY surrounded the 50th meeting of the clubs on November 12, 1921 - when "Anfield was agog with excitement."

Liverpool had the better of the game, but Everton escaped with a draw thanks to an 82nd minute equal-iser from Sam Chedgzoy which led to "the booing of the referee."

Monday's analysis of the incident concluded that Everton's crowd-pleasing Irishman, Bobby Irvine, had picked up possession when he was ruled offside by the referee.

The referee, however, realised he had made a mistake and threw the ball down. The quick-thinking Chedgzoy (pictured right) immediately drilled it into the Liverpool net.

"The Liverpool partisans did not relish this unexpected development," ran the report "but Irvine might well have scored had he not been wrongly judged offside."

The report stated that "Liverpool were the better side," and in Dick Forshaw had "the best forward on the field. He was the mastermind of the Liverpool attack and as a shooter had no equal."

Predictably he opened the scoring for the Reds, but the home side missed numerous chances to make the game safe.

This was the age of the Sufragette movement, and Monday's report also added: "I ought to mention that the Press-box was partially filled with femininity - which is a compliment to our good looks, though rather distracting when one's mind is seriously bent upon the game.

"The operations of the fair sex, however, were inspiring and stimulating and add a new attraction to the winter pastime. The mere male, in cheering his side on, utters a raucous roar. The ladies cheer on their champions in dulcet tones attuned to the highest pitch of passion."

ACCORDING to the special preview edition of the "Liverpool Evening Express and Echo" ahead of the 100th Merseyside derby: "You can't be without internationals of the calibre of Alex Parker, Roy Vernon, Alex Young and Ray Wilson, plus the absence of Tony Kay, and then go into a Derby happy over prospects."

Liverpool only had Alf Arrow-smith missing from their championship-winning side of the previous season. Everton were forced through injury "to turn out what can only be called a makeshift side."

In true derby upset tradition, Everton triumphed 4-0!

The atmosphere was as fraught as ever.

Reports noted that: "The Kop supporters, who reached the heights with a fine reception for the Reykjavik team on Monday night, touched the depths of bad sportsmanship before the great derby game at Anfield this afternoon.

"When the young lady dressed as Mother Noblett who walks round the ground before Everton matches, dispensing toffees to the crowd, appeared, she was greeted when she walked in front of the Kop with a barrage of abuse, orange peel and rolled up pieces of paper."

The Reds fans were silenced, however, when Derek Temple struck after just 54 seconds.

Fred Pickering, making his derby debut, then struck a shot which Tommy Lawrence misjudged to make it 2-0 in the 32nd minute and four minutes before half-time another derby debutant, Colin Harvey, "breasted down Harris's cross from the right and with the assurance of a veteran lobbed it neatly and accurately into the top of the net for a beautifully taken goal."

Johnny Morrissey, who started his career at Anfield, rubbed salt into the wound with a magnificent individual goal midway through the second half.

And with 2004 marking the 10th anniversary of Eric Cantona's famous one-man crowd invasion, how about this postscript - which merited just two paragraphs at the end of the 1964 match report.

"When referee Finney was speaking to Stevens and Thompson after a mild altercation, a large, irate fan emerged from the Kemlyn Road Stand and swung a hefty fist at Stevens.

"He connected slightly on the back of Stevens' head.. the police chased and caught the man in the stand, took his name and address and an inspector subsequently asked Stevens if he wished to prosecute. Stevens declined - and on that felicitous note ended one of the most memorable games ever between the clubs."

HAROLD BARTON was a crowd-pleasing Liverpool right winger who just 12 months earlier had scored all four goals in the Reds' 4--2 FA Cup win at Chesterfield.

But on the afternoon of February 11, 1933, he was widely expected to shrink into the background.

After all, he was in direct opposition to the experienced and formidable Warney Cresswell, and Everton also had Dixie Dean in their starting line-up.

Dean did score twice - the second "a sensational header" - but for once he was upstaged by Barton's glorious hat-trick.

In a stunning match, Everton weren't just beaten. . . they were taken apart by a youthful Liverpool side.

Dean opened the scoring within nine minutes, exploiting a mistake by Tiny Bradshaw and crashing a shot past Elisha Scott.

But just as the home crowd feared the worst, Barton equalised, Hanson gave the Reds a 22nd minute lead and Morrison made it three before half-time.

Tommy Johnson tapped in on the stroke of half-time to reduce the deficit to one goal.

Rather than an end-to-end tussle, the second half was a procession. "Barton, a mere pretender among such class, showed the value of enthusiasm when he seized on the ball as Cresswell stumbled and forced it over the line." Four-two.

Then "Barton again moved through brilliantly for Liverpool's fifth."

Dean broke free of Bradshaw's shackles again to make it 5-3, but Roberts and Barton added a sixth and seventh before Jimmy Stein scored a fourth for the visitors which was scant consolation.

Monday's report concluded: "No wonder someone sprang the gag - 7-4, and that was only the first innings score!"

Wilkinson upstages legendary names >>>>

Wilkinson upstages legendary names>

THE 150th Merseyside derby had nothing but local pride at stake - but despite Everton being without three-quarters of their title-winning midfield plus top scorer Graeme Sharp, and Liverpool leaving out Lawrenson, Gillespie, Kennedy and Walsh ahead of the following week's European Cup final - more than 51,000 fans still crammed into Goodison.

But Paul Wilkinson overshadowed more celebrated strikers like Ian Rush, Kenny Dalglish and Andy Gray on the pitch by scoring the only goal of the game - while John Wark sent a penalty kick scudding wide of the target.

Everton had already clinched the championship three weeks earlier, but the victory gave them their first double over their rivals for 20 years (a treble if the Charity Shield nine months earlier was included).

The following day Howard Kendall was named Manager of the Year to cap a stunning season for the Blue half of the city.